It’s time to compare my reading habits in 2010 vs 2020.
Even as I typed out that blog post title, I started laughing quietly and bitterly to myself, like BOLD OF ME to assume I remember what I was like in 2010. The other day I found a half finished novel in my email files that I was apparently co-writing with my sister in 2012 and do I remember it? Do I have any memory at all of writing it??? no.
(I’m concerned too. ๐)
2010 vs 2020
So back in 2010, I was 16 and I think we need to acknowledge that I was (a) a very young sixteen, and (b) about as oblivious and useful as an upside down turtle. So this should be interesting.
How much did you read?
2010 me โ At 16 I was…hm. Just finishing up school so I was mostly reading historical fiction school books, 90% of them would’ve been either adult or middle grade too. I’d JUST started using a local library more and but I don’t think I’d even read the Hunger Games. This is even PRE- STIEFVATER. So basically I was unformed and unbaked as a person. I would’ve read less than 50 books per year and considered myself a voracious reader.
2020 me โ I’m aiming to read 150 books this year (but I usually read 200) so we can definitely say I’m THRICE THE BOOKWORM I ONCE WAS. But I had no one to be competitive with back then. Now I have all of you to race. ๐ค
Did you write reviews?
2010 me โย This was pre-Goodreads for me, but I did write reviews! In a little notebook! I found it the other day and realised I rated everything backwards. Get ready for this stroke of genius. So “first place” obviously means “1 star”, right!? RIGHT!?!??!ย Anyway all my favourite books are rated 1 star in this notebook. I am wheezing.
2020 me โ I actually write less reviews than I used to because I am old. but I also don’t write negative reviews now so I skip to the ones I love and go into detail and flailing for those. (Flailing + detail = fletail. Don’t argue. Just say out out loud and bask in my quality content here.) Now I review on Goodreads primarily, and I’ll do ARCs and blog tour books here on my blog.
Favourite books?
2010 me โย oh wow I DO NOT REMEMBER. I’ll take a stab in the dark and say: Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, A Murder For Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner, and Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.ย
2020 me โย I mean. Everything Maggie Stiefvater writes of ever? ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ But I also adore wholly: Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Jenn Lyons, Scott Lynch, Laini Taylor, K. Ancrum, Nora Sakavic, Leigh Bardugo and Hannah Moskowitz.
Where did you get your books from?
2010 me โย Mostly second hand reads that my mum would buy for school reasons (we homeschooled and had a very literature based curriculum which was GREAT, except for the fact one book was meant to last, erm, 2 weeks? Fools). I also started getting into library books more and cruising the YA section like a wilful little shark. Did I buy books? Never full price. Only rarely second-hand and it would have to be if I had birthday money.
2020 me โ Oh I buy books. I do. ๐ Maybe 3-5 books per month though, so it’s nothing too wild. Most of my books come from publishers or Netgalley or the library. I was deprived of a library for the last 2 years, so now I have one back and I borrow aaaall the things. They’ve ever bought a few books I requested. This is so good because I would never be able to afford enough to sate my bookish appetite. ๐
What things annoyed you most in books?
2010 me โย Ugh I’m trying to remember. I didn’t have such fierce opinions back then because I was an unformed potato, but I do remember hating books by boys who didn’t really do anything but be “dumbly heroic”. I was scathing to things like Biggles and the Hardy Boys (aka my brother’s books). I hated classics. I plotted the DEATH of Robinson Crusoe, I swear. I despised slow books. And I hated when books didn’t have solidly closed endings with no sequels.
2020 me โย I really am tired of the “badass heroines” who are mean in the name of being empowered. Ugh. It’s not the same thing. Right now I’m wearying of YA characters who do not act like teens, all the fantasies that have marriage as pivotal plot points (?!!? why!!!), and being expected to forgive horrible characters. ๐คจ Erm, no I don’t care about your tragic backstory if you are casually cruel to others. Go eat a raw egg.
Who did you discuss books with?
2010 me โย Only my mum and sister. ๐ญ I had the kind of “friends” who thought reading was only for school and then it was a real chore to get through. And I look back now and understand why I was so disconnected with them when my life was 80% plotting fantasy worlds in my head.
2020 me โ YOU ALL!!!! Oh wow, I seriously have so many people to turn to when I need gush about a book. I have so many incredible friends just a DM away, blog and instagram followers to talk to, and I can write goodreads reviews and engage with the community any time?! I am not starved for bookish discussion. It is so good.
What’s been the biggest change?
Reading more diversely. Reading from LIVING authors. Reading books about people who wholly different to me that I just really learn how rich and wild and deep the world is.
Also my TBR pile. It’s 1000 x taller. ๐
alright tell me your 2010 vs 2020 comparisons for reading habits?! does anyone remember what they were like 10 years ago? ๐(and if you are super young and about to say “I couldn’t even read 10 years ago, c.g.” i will feel old and cry on you, be warned)
“Reading from living authors” — oh my gosh why is this so relatable XDD
In 2010 I was… seven. (?) That makes me laugh. I cannot imagine being such a young potato. Even more unbaked then you!Needless to say, I was not reading a lot then. It’s wild to think about how much life has changed for me. I really started reading in grade five. I read backwards, though. I started my love for reading with The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. Five grader me read those books… moved on to Percy Jackson… and then started reading The Hardy Boys and GERONIMO STILTON. Why did I move from beautiful high fantasy to little kid books? Anyways, I am completely satisfied with how I read now. Last year was my first actual Goodreads year and I read over 200 books. The year before I read 95. The progress is real. This year I have already read 75 and it’s only March.
Yay a fellow homeschooler!! Wow, back in 2010 I would have been… 10, so I really don’t even know what I read then. Probably all baby books. ๐
No . . . I definitely donโt remember 10 years ago. I barely remember yesterday! I know in 2011, I only read classics for a year. Iโm guessing 2010 was pretty much the same. I actually like classics, so that didnโt bother me.
I basically read what I read now! I was reading more non-fiction 10 years ago, partly for finishing my degree, but also I was trying to seem “more adult” – ha! ๐ From 2005-2010, I did read mostly adult fiction, and a lot of it was soooooo bad (even the cozy mysteries and chick lit romances I tended to stick to), it just burned me out, and I happily returned to YA and MG! The tricky thing nowadays, though, is I totally agree with your points about how YA doesn’t seem to actually include teenagers, or plots that younger people would be more invested in… So for someone like me, who really appreciated the more down to earth pacing and sensible discussions of hardcore topics (instead of all the unnecessary grown-up angst), that’s like, flipflopped since about 2018, and now I believe I’ll have to find something else to read again…
Your 1 star rating in your notebook really got me laughing ๐ Hmm I don’t remember much about 2010 me either, but I don’t think I started reading YA yet. I think I mainly read manga at that time, but the biggest difference I could say from pre-blogging vs post-blogging me is that I used to read translated books but now I mainly read in English haha. I try to get back to reading more books by Indonesian authors this year ๐
I was…7/8ish. A skinny little kid with ratty blonde hair who wore exclusively leotards 24/7, and spent allllllll my time reading American girl books, middle grade historical fiction, and every book on anatomy and ancient Egypt I could find. That was a weird phase. O.o
Most crazily, ~Olive
I was not super young 10 years ago. I was 31 ๐๐ญ Which is weird, because I am still not convinced I have reached adult status at this point. In 2010 I was reading almost exclusively comedic fantasy like Terry Prachett and Tom Holt, thrillers and super gory horror books. I had not even introduced myself to the world of YA books then. Gasp. Because apparently I am doing a Benjamin Button and ageing backwards when it comes to reading? I was reading Jaws at 12, then started YA books at 36. Next year I will probably only be reading lift the flap spot books while eating gummy bears.
Ha ha I definitely can’t remember everything I was reading 10 years ago! I was 14, so I think I was still largely reading MG stuff (though we don’t really call it that in the UK, it’s 9-12 fiction) with some YA and some adult stuff as well, I’ve always read pretty widely across the spectrum. Back in 2010, I was super obsessed with Percy Jackson, Skulduggery Pleasant and Artemis Fowl. I read way more than just that but those are the ones that I can really remember. My reading habits haven’t changed massively now, I still read 90% fantasy and I still read quite widely across the spectrum, though I’m moving away from YA a bit more recently. I think the biggest change for me is that I read in multiple formats now, ten years ago, I pretty exclusively read physical books, now I read a lot more e-books (mostly because of Netgalley) and audio as well. I also talk to more people about what I’m reading, because obviously in 2010, I had neither a blog, nor Twitter!
This is such a wholesome post ๐ญ So adorable ! Tbh I don’t really remember what I used to read when I was 13… I just know I REALLY didn’t read as much and I only started to read over 20 books a year in 2017 ๐
I remember I went to the library waaaay more than now and I loved middle grade books such as HP, Artemis Fowl and An Unfortunate Series of Events โค
Thanks for this post ! So many cute memories ๐
In 2010, I was spending my lunchtimes in the school library devouring horror fiction. I read a lot of Point Horror and it is my biggest regret that I did not take advantage of them having ALL OF THE ANIMORPHS BOOKS. I was 12-13. I may have just discovered the Percy Jackson series that World Book Day (I may be a year off either way on that).
I don’t remember a lot of my 2010 reading habits … but it was right before our family acquired a kindle, so I was still reading purely physical books and being a bit of a snob about it. But… thing is, l didn’t read books correctly at the time. I wouldn’t use bookmarks, and would also skip around and read the ending early (something I still do with physical books, though, but I now use bookmarks), so I have a lot of books that I “read” during this time that I’m missing large chunks of the middle ’cause I didn’t actually read them.
Oh I’m cracking up at your 1-star reviews back in 2010. xD What a pure and naive bookworm you were. I’m definitely curious to look back at my 16-year-old reading self once I’m old enough to look back 10 years. As of right now, 10 years ago I was probably reading Magic Treehouse LOL.
I’m trying really hard to remember as well but I can’t for the life of me. Then again, 2010 was the time of my A levels so I guess I didn’t read all that much? It was definitely the time before I started buying books and went to the library, something I’m trying to start again but the new library kinda sucks.
But everything else? No idea. ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
Ten years ago I could barely read and only did it for school, not I read 80ish books a year for fun, young me would be shook
I was 20/21 in 2010, and I remember it very well. 2010 was a really horrible year for me, but on the good side, I started what would be my first published novel and finally found an anxiety medication that helped me (even if it would take four more years to get the dosage right). Reading-wise, I was only getting about five books read a year. By 2012, it went up to 10+. And not long after that, I started getting in about 30 a year. It was helped by starting to count graphic novels, but I was still reading way more than I had previously. My reading has dropped a bit again the last two years because I’ve been in deep edits with my first and second book and I have trouble turning to reading for fun when I’m spending so much time and energy on reading as work. But I have discovered a new love for audio books! So, actually, last year was my “best” reading year according to Goodreads, between lots of audio books and manga!
ok crying alert… I was like a year into reading books 10 years ago???
itโs so interesting to see the comparisons between times!! and yes, you can always talk to us ๐ x
Oh gosh, 10 years ago. Let’s see if I can remember… I was in my sophomore year of college at the beginning of the year, and didn’t get much reading done apart from schoolwork. That may have been the year I read the entire Fruits Basket series? Maybe? I worked at my college library over the summer, and got a good amount of reading done there I think. Now I read way more, having discovered the beauty of audiobooks. It also helps that I normally sit on a bus for around 3 hours a day ๐
I would have been 10! I don’t remember the exact books I was reading, but I was certainly still enjoying the Warriors series, and I think that was about when I started getting into the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan. I was obsessed, and I think that series is partially responsible for my intense love of fantasy. ๐ And of course, that was probably about when I started reading Harry Potter!
Oooh I love this! Also it is bananas to think that 2010 is a full decade ago, but here we are. So I had JUST started reading again after a bit of an unintended hiatus. Idk why I hadn’t been reading, nothing had really been speaking to me? Who knows. But anyway, I had just quit my full-time job because I was planning to raise small humans, and I was baby-sitting my former client while his parents were at work, and his mom INSISTED that I read the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. So I mean, I was bored while the kid was watching TV and playing video games, so I did. And I kind of loved them! So I started reading again! THEN, and this is tragic, I COULD NOT read while I was pregnant with Lena. It made me SO physically ill, the entire time! But then after she was born, a friend kept bugging me to read The Hunger Games (and I was reluctant, because I thought it was some kind of foodie thing) and I did and HERE WE ARE. Luckily when I was pregnant with Sammy I had no problems reading ( I started my blog the day before he was born!) so it’s been steady ever since!
i love this post idea, cg! i’m not going to say i couldn’t read 10 years ago because i could but… i’ll say that i was pretty young ๐ญ๐ญ i think around that time i was reading chapter books like the rainbow magic fairy series or junie b jones lmao. but i also didn’t really have anyone to talk to about books because all my friends/classmates hated reading, so there’s something that isn’t completely different from your experience haha!!
I used to love the rainbow magic fairy books! I still have all of my copies!
I was only a smol bean back in 2010 but I’ve always loved reading, that much hasn’t changed. My reading preferences have definitely progressed and I read a lot more books now. I wish I’d written down the books I’d read back then though, it would be great to read back on my thoughts.
Wow, in 2010 I was three, I don’t think I even KNEW how to read yet. ๐๐๐
Hahahaha are you ready to feel older Cait? 2010 I was 9 for like 10/12 months of that year because hi November child who’s age plays catch up with the year. But erm 9 year old me was very much into horse books and vampire books because I was watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with my mum at the time since she has the box sets. So…horses and vampires. Totally normal combo xD I didn’t write reviews back then and I don’t anymore now, only short ones on Goodreads because I’m not the biggest fan of reviewing books. I’ll just skip to the shrieking haha. Young me was annoyed when the male characters had to save the female characters and I also didn’t like classics…still don’t really. 9 year old me would always be reading like I think read more back then than I do now…which makes total sense because I the time I would just use to read, I split between my other loves (like blogging, bookstagram, writing etc)
I still love vampire books to be honest, Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance are two of my favourite genres but I’ve definitely broadened by reading horizons from then. I read more contemporary than I used to, sci-fi and many other genres. I used to talk my parents and grandma’s ears off about books, and my friend who’s also a reader. (I am blessed to have an irl friend who’s also a HUGE reader) so we spent a lot of time talking books. Now I still talk to her but I also have all my online friends who are awesome <3
I absolutely love this post! 2010 was spo long ago but also wow pre-Stiefvater for you I can barely imagine that.. When did you first read Stiefvater books? And oh man 2010 me like did she even read, I swear I didn’t properly start reading good books until 2011 at least but 2010 me was also seven so hehe.
lol I miss the 16 year old reading habits i had because I actually…READ BOOKS. Which now takes me like a year, a blood sacrifice, and a few therapy sessions to find out why I’m slow at it?? I literally read all seven Harry Potter books in a few days in high school because my friend said I had to do it before I graduated… so I did…the last week before I graduated ๐ my teacher asked me if I was mugging the library because I was, looking back, very Hermione with my giant stack and my crazy hair. I assume my hair was crazy, because it usually is. Unless those were my days of trying to do pony tails???? Who knows. But yeah, back then it was better days for reading. I have the brain power of a snail now…
Butttt at least my friends enjoyed reading too!! one of them lent me her TMI books which is how my life went obsessively to THAT dark side of Cassandra Clare. Glorious times indeed.
Ten years ago I was just finishing high school, so I probably read books for school? I don’t rememberโฆ I do know that we read a lot of Dutch literature for school and everything was about WWII and I hated it. Probably why I didn’t read anything else, because I had a bad association with books haha.
Luckily I got over that and read waaaay more than I did back then. Having a library card really helps too!
I don’t remember what I read 10 years ago!! I only started using GoodReads (and cataloguing what books I read when) in June 2012. I’d love to know my reading history before then. Actually 2010 was a pretty bad year for me. I had to temporarily put my studies on hold because I had an autistic burnout. I had to wait a few months to get some treatment. I ended up staying home for a year, and then continued my studies. I don’t remember much of that year.. not what I read, what I did, barely anything to be honest. It’s like, I felt so bad I just blanked the year in my memory.
That said, my reading has definitely changed since half-2012. In the second half of 2012 I almost exclusively read adult books: fantasy, some science-fiction, some contemporary fiction and some chick-lit/rom-com. I didn’t read any YA or children’s/middle-grade books at the time.
Now in 2020, I read books for adults, YA, and children’s books. I read a larger variety of genres (aside from the aforementioned I also read a lot of memoirs, some information books, some mysteries, thrillers, paranormal, horror, and more). I read more diverse now and more books involving characters part of a minority group, I read more books about mental health, good fat rep, books about neurodiverse characters and people, books by and / or about people of colour, LGBT+ representation, disability representation. I also sometimes read graphic novels, graphic memoirs, manga, comics, and so on, as well as illustrated books and ‘text’books (I think they call it prose books but I’ve always called it ‘text’books).
Great blog post! I really enjoyed reading about how your reading tastes have changed!
Oh man…..I don’t think I read a lot in 2010. I devoured historical fiction all through high school and college, so I was probably still picking up old favorites in that field. I know I also went through a phase where I alternated “fun” books and classics. Now, I read a lot more. Between Audible and my book collection, I read and reread! Fantasy, either epic or urban, YA or NA or adult…I do have some non fiction pieces I really adore (Ben McIntyre is a fantastic nonfiction writer) but adventure stories are my jam.
The difference between 16 and 26 is huge. For me, it doesn’t seem like it should be as big of a difference, but blogging sure does change your reading!
Oh what a wonderful idea for a post, I love it so much <3 and it's so fun to see how much you've grown as a reader with time, too! I think I've grown so much in the past years, just as well, especially and even more exponentially as I started book blogging. I read so much now! and so many people to talk books with! this is the most amazing thing ever <3
Did you write back then?
This is such a good post!!
I wrote a post for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt about books I love that I don’t speak about enough. I decided to look through my Goodreads challenges over the past eight years to remind myself…and wow. I was a very young thirteen-year-old when I started blogging and there was pretty much no YA initially! I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHO CASSANDRA CLARE WAS. ACK.
I know this post is kind of old already, but I just found it buried in my email and I think it’s a really interesting topic so I wanted to comment. Anyway, I was 11-12 in 2010, and I don’t remember exactly what I read that year, but I know that I read The Hunger Games and all of the Percy Jackson books around that time. I also remember that my teacher read us the book Star Girl in school and we also did little book groups that year where we got to choose which books our group would read and my group read the Golden Compass. I think I also read about 50 books a year at that time, but unfortunately that’s way more than I read now ๐
Also, I just wanted to say that I’ve been reading your blog since 2016 and I hardly ever comment because I’m very shy and don’t have my own blog, but I love your blog and I’m really happy that you’ve kept at it all these years!
Karen!! This is so lovely and I absolutely massively appreciate this comment. (Also it’s nice to meet you ๐๐I totally get shy too, don’t worry, I understand!!) I also loved hearing about your 10 years ago memories ๐ Percy Jackson is always a timeless fave for me eep.
I was like 14 back in 2010 and that was the year South Africa hosted the Soccer World Cup (so much excitement for me, I’m telling you) and we got a month off of school. But the LIBRARY decided to CLOSE for the duration of the World Cup and I’d already read all my library books within the first week of holidays so lemme tell you, I did not have fond memories of that Cup ๐
I also probably read way more in 2010, but I’m reading more diversely now – so at least that counts for something!
Also, I was really into reading the classics and what people (usually older people) said I should read and now I’m debating to uhhh make crafts out of my classic books? Book origami and the like?
I have to share my sob story coz I love sharing this.
10 years ago I would have been 15. My dad was always too busy to take me to the library. So when we did go, I would borrow a whole lot of books and then return them like a month or two later.
It was fine coz we were allowed to renew books like 4 times I think? I don’t know but I remember renewing it over and over again.
So I got library books like a few times a year.
For some reason at one point I didn’t go to the library for a while and when I went back, things had changed completely. Only one renewals, the librarians were new (AND AWFUL HUMAN BEINGS!) and they wanted to fine me for bringing the books in late (hello, no one had told me that the renewal policy had changed).
I stopped borrowing books from the library because thereafter it was like everything was an issue. I went in years later to photocopy notes for uni as our campus burned down and the library staff were still so rude.
Whatever.
Once I got my own car and a job, instead of going to the awful library with the awful people (and the same books since 2010), I started buying books. However because of my book-deprived background (atleast I think that’s the reason why), I would buy more books than I could read.
Now I have a huge book collection and instead of going to the library with their horrid staff, I can just pick out a book out of my own home library.
(I did not see this story being so long lol)
So I was actually using Goodreads back in 2010 and I took a look at it. I read 37 books that year and the majority of them were rereads. This was pre-job me who didn’t use the local library because it sucked, so I was dependent on my mom getting me new books which didn’t happen all the time.